Criminal Courts and Lay People

Summary Cases

Examples include driving without insurance, common assault and criminal damages under £5000

1 of 17

Triable Either Way Cases

Middle range crimes

Tried in either magistrates or crown

Examples include theft and assult causing bodily harm

Plead guilty - heard by magistrates

Plead not guilty - defendent has the right to ask for the case to be heard by crown

2 of 17

Indictable Cases

Most serious crimes

Murder, manslaughter and ****

Only heard in crown

Preliminary hearing in magerstrates

3 of 17

Magistrates Courts

400 in england and wales - one in almost evey town

Cases with connection to it geographical area

heard by lay magistrates

legally qualified clerk attatched to each court to assist magistrates

Large workload

try all summary cases and most triable either way - 97% of all criminal cases (2 million per yr)

Also have juristiction of: early admin hearing for indictable offences, youth court cases, warrants and bail

Appeal route - magistrate to crown: only available to defence, against conviction or sentence (if plead not guilty) pled guilty can appela against sentence - have an automatic right to appeal

Appeal to QBD -defendent or procecution on a point of law, QBD either agree or disagree with the appeal and can send it back or take it further

4 of 17

Crown Court

90 centers in england and wales

exclusivly serious cases

heard by a judge and jury

al indictable and small number of either way

Appeal to court of appeal - defence appeal on sererity of sentence and or point of law and procecution on leanience of the sentence and or point of law (can go to the supreme court if its on a point of law in general public importance)

Appela to QBD - appeal given by defendent in magistrates over sentencing or conviction to the crown, when the case is heard again in the crown a point of law comes up the appeal is taken to QBD

5 of 17

Lay Magistrates - Justice of the Peace

People who hear cases in the magistrates courts

Not legally qualified volunteers

18 -65 years old

Live near the court

cant have serious criminal convictions

cant be a undischarged bankrupt

cant be hearing impaired or infirm

must be balance on the bench (three on the bench)

must be able to commit to 26 half days - part time

voluntry

hears 95% of all criminal cases

vital role in criminal courts

have local knowledge

trained by magistrates national training initiative (sentence the same)

trained in sentencing and procedures

reflect society as a whole

'middle age and middle class'

6 of 17

Key characteristics and qualities of a magistrates

1) Good Character

2) Understanding and communication

3) Social awareness

4) maturity snd sound temperment

5) sound judgement

6) commitment and reliability

7 of 17

Appointment, Training and Removal

Appointment

can put yourself forward

nominated by political parties or trade unions

By Lord chancellor on behalf of the Queen on the recomendation of the local advisory committees

Local advisory committee made up of mainly ex-magistrates. max five members

Training: 4 basic competencies;

personal Development log of prgress

mentors and montored sessions

attend training sessions

appraisal

Removal

retitment age is 70

remove on the ground of: incapacity or misbehaviour. persistent failure to meet standards

8 of 17

Composition of Bench

25,000 lay magistrates in the UK

49% men

51% women

good representation of ethnic minorities

tend to be older

40% retired from work

Profesional backround

Middle aged, middle class

9 of 17

Work of a Lay Magistrate

hear all summarty trials

send cases tp crown court for trial Bail applications

Youth courts

Family courts

Licensing appeals

Sit in crown in appeals from the Magistrates' court

10 of 17

Advantages of Lay Magistrates

Cross section of society - system involves members of society, providing a wider cross section of society that would be possible with the ues of profesional judges.

Local Knowledge - have to live or work near the court, should have local knowledge of the area and will have more awareness of local events, local patterns of crime and local opinions that a professional judge may not

Cost- unpaid volunteers, cost of replacing with judges is estimated at £100 million a year

Training - improved, not amateurs in what they are doing, decisions require common sence rather than professional training

Few Appeals - few appeals against the magistrates decision, most made against sentencing. 2 million cases are hear, between 5,000 - 6,000 appeald and less than half of them are successful.

11 of 17

Disadvantages of Lay Magistrates

Middle age middle class - 40% retired and overwhelmingly from a professional or manigerial background. however wider than use of profesional judge.

Inconsistency in sentencing - different areas pass different sentences for similar offences, this has not improved despite equal training recieved. Example - burglary of dwelling 20% of offenders sentenced to immediate custody in Teeside compared with 41% of offenders in Birmingham

Reliance on Clerk - lack legal knowledge, need advice off legally qualified clerk. not allowed to help in decision of the case

Prosecution Bias - Magistrates tend to be prosecution biased believing on the police to readily. Training tries to eliminate this. If a police man brings someone in magistrate is more likely to listen to the police man than what is heard in the case.

Training - Inadequate for the workload, poor training is the reason for variation in sentencing

12 of 17

Use of Juries

Criminal Court (crown court) MAIN USE

hear serious crime cases when the defendant pleads not guilty

decide verdict (guilty or not) judge law jury facts

12 jurors - majority verdict

Civil Court (high and county court)

hear four types of cases:

Defamation

False imprisonment

maliciouse prosecution

fraud

Decide liability and decideds amount of damages

12 jurors

Coroners' Court

7 - 11 jurors

decide cause of death

when the death is: in custody, through police act of from notifiable disease

13 of 17

Qualifications

Basic Qualifications: be aged between 18- 70, be on the elctoral register and have lived in the uk for at least 5 years.

May be unable to sit for the following reasons:

You are mentally disordered

Deaf

Disqualified permanently:

imprisoned for life or for public protection

you are serving an extended sentence or a term of 5 years or more

Disqualified for 10 years if at any time in the last 10 years you:

served a prison sentence

had a suspended sentence

on bail

Excusal is you are a full time member of the armed forces (have the right to be excused)

Discretionary excusal if you have a good reason why you cannot sit eg too ill

14 of 17

Selection

Central computer selects names at random from the elctoral list

summons for jury service are sent to the people selected

any one who cannot attend muct tell the court and give reason

if reason is good and accpted they may be excused

all the rest must attend or be fined for non attendance

at court 13 selected for each trial

individual jurors may be challenged for cause eg Knowing the defendant

whole panel may be challenged for biased selection

no right to challeng the panle over the fact its not multi racial

judge can discharged a juror if not capanle of being a juror

15 of 17

Advantages of Jury Trial

Public confidence - fundermentals of a democratic society, tried by ones peers, public trust it, historic

Equity - not legal experts, not bound to followe any precidents, listen to the facts and make a judgement on the facts only.

Open system of justice - makes the legal system more open to the public, justice served by members of the public, keeps law clear for both the jury and defendant

Secrecy - free from pressure in their discussion, protected from outside influence, freedom to ignore the strict letter of the law.

Impartiality - impartial and have no connection to anyone in the case, cross section of society.

16 of 17

Disadvantages of Jury Trial

Perverse Decisions - can make preverst and unjust decisions

Secrecy - no reason has to be given for the verdict, no way of knowing of the jury understood the case and came to the decision for the right reasons - the facts in the case

Exceptions - R v Young jury all stayed in a hotel and used a ouiji board to come to a verdict than listen to the facts of the case.

Internet - google the defendant and judge them from that and not the case

Racial Bias - predudices to a coloured defendant. some may be biased against the police (one of the reasons criminals are disqualified

Media Influence - high profile cases, hard to not hear about it on the news and judge the defendant based upon that

Lack of Understanding - dont understand the facts of the case especially true in fraud cases, go with what everybody eles thinks due to lack of understanding